Nice clean beds, 843rphyllis!

I never aspired to grow bog plants, leeks or potatoes, but now I know I have the option.
My ambitions have not risen above Brassicas, lettuce, beans and snap peas yet.

One previous neighbor knew what to do with her "boggy spot": planted rhubarb.

My personal pick would be American Pitchers (Sarracenia) and water cress.

I believe I need raised beds since I have nasty clay soil, but I have no idea how I, by myself, could construct one. Could cinder blocks straight on the ground with paper bags covering the current sod work??

I am building a raised bed using concrete wall blocks. They have a small lip on the back edge so each brick grabs the block below it. It helps to dig in the first row of brick a couple inches into the soil to hold that row in place. Then build on top, staggering each brick so they aren't sitting squarely on top of the one below. It will look like this when its done but not so tall.

https://www.google.com/search?...

The bricks come in all sizes - I chose small ones that I could easily pick up and build with by myself.

Spray the sod with roundup and build away. If you make your raised bed over a foot deep, whatever grass is left will be discouraged from growing that far. Unless you have burmuda or crabgrass....

Daisy

Barbalee said:I believe I need raised beds since I have nasty clay soil, but I have no idea how I, by myself, could construct one. Could cinder blocks straight on the ground with paper bags covering the current sod work??

Definitely. Many people use corrugated cardboard to cover sod - they say "it brings the worms". Me, I don't know.

I'd rather swing a mattock to chop the sod, and mix in crushed stone and bark to jump-start aeration into the root-zone-below-the-"raised"-bed. That way I have a raised bed whose root zone is encouraged to gradually enter and break up the clay below the raised part of the bed.

Cinder blocks will be very stable, but they are somewhat expensive and heavy. I find "paver stones" set on end to be lighter and cheaper (but my tallest wall is 18", since I can't stack paver stones on end:




Often the same spot looks very different in different photos. I like that about the paving stones: they are easier to move around than living room furniture. Every time I get a whim, I adjust where one bed ends and the next begins, or where the "sidewalk" is, or how high the walls are.

And I seldom "tidy" the walls, so each stone leans at a different angle. Those can be tidied up to lean at the same angle, but I seldom bother.

Thank you, Daisy and Rick!! You've both given me some great ideas. I like that either can be used to create curved beds AND I'll be able to do it myself instead of hiring a "landscaper." Bless you both!

Happy Building!

By the way, what kind of intriguing flower do you have as your avatar?

Daisy

It's a coreopsis known as "Tiger Stripes." I've just planted it, and I hope to see the same thing when the baby is grown!

Best of luck to you, Barbalee!

Thanks, Rick!

Barbalee, why don't you use like mine (concrete retaining wall block) http://www.lowes.com/pd_101534...
You just have to dig a little bit and add some dirt mix with sand under the block...and it's perfect...

Oooh, those are pretty! What kind of sand did you use? How deep did you have to dig? How high is your wall? Tell me more!

The sand I got is from Home Depot calls Quickrete All Purpose Sand comes in 60 lbs bag, I think I add 4 of those in my bed...

Ah ha! Thank you javaMom!!

Those retaining wall blocks are THE classic thing to use for a stable and permanent retaining wall. Since they never budge, they are always tidy (no "straightening them up".)

I think they are heavier than I need for my little 8"-16" above-ground semi-raised beds. Instead of putting 10-15 in the trunk of my car, my suspe4nsion might only be happy with 4-5. And I can easily carry 1-3 of my little pavers, in my arms. Those "real" blocks look like I would struggle with just one.

Maybe over ten years, my little leaners would bow outwards and NEED to be tweaked back into alignment (like by shoveling a little soil away from the inner edge of each, and leaning it 15 degrees "IN", instead of a random amount "OUT". But over those ten years, I expect to have fiddled with them 2-5 times, re-aligning as needed.

Also, in my yard, it's a big deal that the "real" retaining wall blocks are 6-8" deep. That takes up a whole square foot of bed space for every 1.5 feet or two feet of wall length. When I use my concrete-paving-stones-stood-on-end, I save all but 3/4" or 1" of that 6-8" wall width.

My yard is tiny and my scattered beds are even tinier. Every square foot that gets sun is precious!

Hmmm, Rick, that's good thinking. I'm going to have to do some measuring and planning before I decide.... Thanks!

I think most of us have things in the back of our minds we would like to do if money and labor were not limiting factors.

After my gardening adventures this spring, I sure don't have any money or enough labor to do the things I want to do around here :-)! With a new home and coming back the US, my wish book is totally full!